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Monday, May 30, 2011

Cherry picking

Two weeks in advance the cherries are ready. We are allowed to pick them from the tree in the garden of the house where we rent a flat. Marc and Luc have been getting some training because they are being employed to pick them this summer once they have finished school. They may even do some over weekends. We are grateful for the man who is employing them. Because of their age they will only work half-days, but he is prepared to take them on because he thinks it's good for the young people to learn about the world of work, physical effort, financial reward ....
But we also have a testimony about jams (and the fruit that get made into jams!) Ever since Pascal and I have been married, we have never lacked for jam - mainly home made. It's become a symbol of the way in which God provides for our every need. At the Bible Institute people would give us gifts of jam; at Béziers we had a cherry, 2 abricot and an olive trees, so we made our own. At Lyon, people would give us fruit from their gardens and there were great food markets around to buy fruit on the cheap. Here in Lamastre we have cherries, pears, apples, plums.

So next time you visit us, you can try a real French breakfast with a bowl of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and bread sticks lathered in Normandy butter and home made jams!
Bon appetit

The Ardéchoise bike event

Just to let you know that I've had to give up my plan to do the bike ride. I had too much trouble finding the time to do the training rides, got quite affected by hayfever this year, and was put off by the wind which seems particularly strong (but it might just be because I let myself get put off too easily!)


Thank you to those who were praying for me. I will keep cycling because I have enjoyed it, but will work on the Ardéchoise project longer term. We could always pray they reduce the circuit to 60 km instead of 80 km!! But we could be accused of misuse of privilege!!

Borrowed Creativity!

I'm just showing off, but I love decorating things using the paper serviette technique, because I don't need to be a real artist to achieve a satisfactory result!
I had had so many things to organise and needed to clear my head. Claire needed some ideas so we could make an end-of-year gift for her teacher, so I got out these projects that have been waiting for several YEARS! No joking! We made some shopping list notepads and then I kept going with these. It's fruit-picking time here so we used the basket to collect cherries off the tree in the garden of the house we live in.
Makes me feel very country-living! Just wish I could get enthusiastic about doing a vegie garden.

Can I turn this into a spiritual lesson ? Just try me!
I'm not a natural artist, but I know how to use what's around to produce something which has quite a pleasing effect. God uses us as we are to manifest His presence in this world and it can be quite wonderful to see how He makes the most of what we are prepared to offer Him of ourselves. His creativity is rather spectacular, so give Him the opportunity to put it into practice !


Easter decorations by Tatyana at our church
Here is the work of a real artist!

The School Trip


The teachers at our Primary School asked me to accompany 2 classes on a school trip to Lyon for 2 days. My own daughter wasn't in the group, so I saw this as a God-directed invitation. The teachers know and trust me to be a 'good accompany-er' inspite of any worries they might have about me being a practising Christian. I really like one of the teachers in particular but she is openly anti-Christian - the militantly secular type. So was this my chance to pursue the subject ?
Picture the scene. We are at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon. The kids are gathered around the guide who is explaining the concept of 50 BC, talking about the Roman arenas, Christian martyrs (there were quite a few in First Century Lyon). "Jesus-Christ is an historical figure you know", she assures the children. "What is a martyr?"
"JC - Jean-Claude pour les intimes." mutters the teacher under her breath looking at me in a provocative way. She explained outside that when she has to mention Jesus Christ in her classes in an historical or artistic context, she jokes about the initials of his name being Jean-Claude for those who are close to him. "We are in a secular school - we don't promote religion here," she continues.
"So, you don't think Jesus Christ is an historical figure ?" I ask, taking the bait."Did you know that the existance of Jesus Christ is one of the most attested historical facts from that period?"
"I'll admit he existed during Roman times and he was considered a threat to the Roman Empire because he refused to worship their gods. But I won't go any further!"
"That was the reason the first Christian martyrs were killed," I replied," Jesus was crucified because he was a threat to the Jewish leaders of the time." She looked at me quizzically as if to say "well, we all know that you are going to defend him because of your views, but you aren't going to convince me that easily!"
Our conversation ended there as we moved onto the next exhibit, counted children and made sure nothing was left behind.
She's not going to get away with it!!! It was a good-humoured teasing, and I know she is respectful, but as soon as I'm no longer a parent in the school, she's going to receive "More than a Carpenter" by Josh and Sean McDowell or "This Jesus I never knew" by Philip Yancey.
 

Friday, May 20, 2011

Our Day Off

This is our day off. At least it was until I got on to the computer.

And how does a typical Frenchman spend his day off ???

The French students among you will recognise the famous French Grammar reference "le Bled". Pascal is checking what homework Claire has to do for tomorrow, has come across a new grammar exercise book and is comparing the terms and explanations with his own dim past school memories ! And loving it!

This may be just one example of the famous "exception française" - the French exception. They don't seem to do things the way others do, and they certainly don't like to conform to general rules and regulations. They have their own way of doing things. This term applies to culture, politics and general law issues. The French are very proud of it.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Speaking of Easter, I forgot to show you this at Christmas!

Christmas in France is very secular and public religious displays are very rare. One of the advantages of living in the country where Christian traditions are still accepted, is that you see manger scenes in shop windows and can have a Christian book stall at the Christmas market. This is the first time I have seen religious themes on the windows of supermarkets though. Worth a photograph.


This was taken at our local supermarket in Lamastre.

Just to remind you of some figures taken from a survey 2011 to establish the big picture of Protestants in France. An estimated 1.7 million, of which 600,000 people regularly attend church and the majority being Evangelical.

The survey revealed a new growing group : non-practising Evangelicals ! An interesting paradox.

There are an estimated 4000 protestant church congregations in France including 2,600 Evangelical communities. When I was on home assignment last year, I mentioned that we would need to create 4000 more Evangelical Churches in France in order to reach the target of 1 Evangelical church per 10,000 people.

Tanya on the left in our ladies' group

Ben holding cup cakes representing French flag!
On a more local level, our church is losing one family (returning to England) and our Ukrainian friend, Tanya , a born evangelist!

Nathalie during the morning session of Kids'Club
The ladies group has just finished discussing Rebecca Pippert's 1980s classic "Out of the Saltshaker", so hopefully ideas are spawning. We have just finished a 3-day Kids' Club with a couple of outside children (ie. not from our church community). Will you pray with us that the Lord will bring 3 new families to our church and that we will be gaining new converts ?

Christ is risen!

I enjoyed checking out Google images to find this. Interesting collection of images available, including some publicity posters for a film called Halloween - The Resurrection.

We had a special time at Easter because Pascal was at our Lyon church, so we weren't together as a family. It can be at times like these that we feel the lack of our blood family, because we can't look forward to special holidays to have get togethers.
However, we had a special service at our church. Claire did a special number about Jesus' miracles with her Sunday School group. The boys were part of a tribunal reconstruction of the resurrection.
Then we were invited to our English friends' home for Easter lunch - so we were with our Christian family.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sorting out stuff

Well, it's Spring time here and the world has turned green inspite of the lack of rain. The wind is blowing rather strongly and many of us are affected by hayfever. (NB 2 very good reasons for not doing any bike training ! However I did go out with Marc for a 40 km ride last week.)

So the ol' Spring fever has set in and I'm cleaning things and have got the urge to sort stuff out. Gotta make the most of it while it lasts !!! 
I need to get rid of things - always hard to do when you could think of a useful reconversion for many objects, and when you are quite 'green-spirited' and wish to recycle rather than throw out, and when you think you are going to run the best Kids' club in the area so you need all these things for potential art & craft activities, and when you worry that you wouldn't have enough money to buy another one later if you did need it .....

So what should I do with all my Bible Institute notes ? Three years of treasure stashed away in cardboard folders. It was all so wonderful to discover at the time and so much of what I had noted meant so much to me in my Christian growth. How I wanted to pass it all on - to my own children, to other children, to other women. But do I really need to keep it all and lug it around every time we move house (because, yes, we are going to be moving house in July and August - so much for real holidays!).
Then I started to take a look at the notes, thinking that my New Year's Resolution could be to re-read everything and do a refresher course. 

What sort of baggage do we drag along with us day-to-day, week-in-week-out, from year to year ??? How much do we hang on to things and let them weigh us down instead of heeding Paul's encouraging us to strive ahead, look forward and leaving behind us all that hinders, to run the race to its end.
Yet, looking through those notes I could only be encouraged. Wow ! So much of what was new and exciting in 1990 is now acquired knowledge. And even if I say it myself, I have been putting many things into practice in my personal and family life, in my ministry, in my understanding of the world today through a Christian perspective.  

So I figure I'm carrying some good baggage. And I can throw out a lot of those notes because what is written is now written in my heart and the Holy Spirit is there to remind me of it.


Mmm, I feel lighter already ! (But not light enough to get up those Ardèche hills! anyone know of a way to lose 10 kilos overnight without serious consequences to one's health ???)